


The Tower

by FireEye



Category: The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: A tale of daring rescue, of prophecy, and of sugar cookies.





	The Tower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rebecca_selene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebecca_selene/gifts).



Whatever the midnight tower guard had been expecting on their hitherto unassuming post, it wasn’t a mad scullery maid armed only with a skillet.

It was a dreadfully unfair battle.  One man went tumbling down the stairs before either knew what hit him, and the other hardly managed to fumble his sword a scant few inches from its scabbard before cold iron struck first his hand, then his chest, knocking him breathless into the wall.

The tower guard thus conquered, Molly set her sights on the door itself and the padlock that kept it locked from the outside.  She hadn’t been able to purloin the key itself – worn on a chain around the neck of the sovereign Queen, to whom she had no way of gaining access – but once more the skillet proved true.  Not the first, but the second blow cracked the bar the lock secured off its mooring, and the third removed it completely.

The door creaked open, and bare stone gave way to soft carpet beneath the soles of her feet.  The room itself was cozier than she expected for a prisoner of the Crown, but then either the Crown didn’t want to offend its reluctant wizard... or its reluctant wizard simply fashioned it that way.

Said wizard hadn’t even looked up from the ream of brittle, yellowed parchment he was poring over.  Rather, he flipped a page, entranced.

Her cat padded along, brushing past her leg, to jump up onto the small table.  He curled his tail around his paws, and leveled his gaze at the wizard.

“Hm?” Schmendrick raised his eyes from his parchment to blink at the cat’s unblinking stare, then glanced to Molly.  “Oh.”

The sugar cookie he had been spinning between his fingers stilled, and, attention falling back to the page, he held it out to her.  “Want one?”

Molly scowled at his disinterest.  She never understood what it was about loving him that made certain of his more idiosyncratic moments even more intolerable now than the long past days when she hadn’t.

“You sure?  They’re good.”

The wizard flicked his fingers, and the door slammed shut in the face of the guard that had recovered his gallantry to follow Molly into the tower dungeon.

Molly glanced at the door behind her.  Then at Schmendrick.  Then twirled the skillet in hand, and curtsied acerbically.  “ _Well_ , as long as you’re comfortable here, I suppose I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Lost in some thought or another as he studied the page, Schmendrick traced his thumb beneath his chin.

“No,” he murmured at last, as though to himself.  He roused to stretch with a long sigh, and, standing, reached for his cloak that had been draped over the back of the chair.  His voice raised as he pulled it about his shoulders, “We should definitely be leaving.  This Prophecy isn’t going to resolve itself the way they’re convinced it is... and we ought to be far away before it does.”

The cat jumped down from the table as Schmendrick gathered the remaining plate of cookies into a handkerchief.

Schmendrick leaned to kiss her cheek as he stepped past her, and Molly scoffed at him.  The guards charged past them into the room as he pulled the door open, one tripping flat unexpectedly on the carpet and the other stumbling over his fallen colleague.

The cat padded out ahead of them.  One step over the threshold, Schmendrick turned back towards her, again holding out a cookie.

“You’re sure you don’t want one?”

**Author's Note:**

>  _Favorite fairy tale_. I hope you enjoy this bit of adventure.  <3


End file.
